Wednesday, December 8, 2010

George Lucas Scoops Up Oceanfront Contemporary in Carpinteria

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: This morning we're going to start off by piggy backing on an item in the gossipy Page Six column of today's NY Post that snitched about Bay Area multi-billionaire film producer George Lucas dumping a wad of money to buy an expensive estate in the Santa Barbara, CA area.

The accomplishments in the bizness of show for 4-time Oscar nominated Mister Lucas are many and notable but he is perhaps best known as the man responsible for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film franchises as well as Howard the Duck, a cinematic turd of epic proportions that Mister Lucas promptly and wisely disowned after its 1986 release.

The estate Mister Lucas purchased is actually not in Santa Barbara or even the celebrity friendly enclave of Montecito but rather a few miles down the highway on a particularly posh and ear piercingly expensive stretch of sand in Carpinteria, CA. The low slung contemporary was first listed in 2008 with an asking price of $37,500,000. It was also put out for lease with an asking price of $45,000 per month. Over the years the price dropped to $24,950,000 and, according to a wee blurb on an real estate website Your Mama dug up, the beachfront home recently closed escrow at $19,500,000. Not only is the purchase price almost half what the sellers originally wanted, it's also a pocketbook punishing $7,500,000 less than the $27,000,000 property records and other online sources show was paid for the property in August of 2006 at the apex of the most recent real estate bubble.

Listing information Your Mama needled out of the internets shows that the property stretches across 1.7 ocean front acres. With 150-feet of beach frontage it's one of the largest and widest parcels on that section of the shore. The gated two building compound, built in 1981, includes a 4 bedroom main house with long uninterrupted expanses and a separate 2-bedroom guest house. Listing information indicates there are a total of 6 terliting facilities on the property. For those fitness freaks not interested in running on the beach the property has a yoga room and what listing information called "an amazing exercise rm."

A wide terrace enclosed by by a low wall stretches along the back of the main house where a strip of grass and a rock revetment divides the manicured grounds and gardens designed by Keith LeBlanc Landscape Architecture in Boston from the pounding surf. A large wind protected courtyard between the the main and guest houses includes a long lap pool surrounded by decking with a peep of the ocean through the trees.

Mister Lucas lives primarily in San Anselmo, CA on a colossal compound that stretches over at least 10 parcels. The 6 bedroom and 7.5 pooper main house measures a sizable 15,159 square feet and several additional structures dot the property that range from an 860 square foot 1 bedroom cottage to several other residences well in excess of 3,000 square feet. The property also includes a pill-shaped swimming pool, a tennis court and pavilion accessed by a foot bridge that spans the street that divides the wooded estate into two parts, and several oddly shaped buildings, one of which looks like an observatory but we really have no idea if it is or not.

Mister Lucas also owns Skywalker Ranch, a 4,700 acre spread near Nicasio, CA where his filmmaking headquarters are located. The ranch includes a main house where Mister Lucas does not live, an animal filled barn, vineyard, fruit and veggie gardens, an on-site restaurant for employees, a swimming pool and fitness facilities with racquetball courts, a man-made lake, hilltop observatory, 300-seat theater (called The Stag), scads of underground parking and its very own own fire station